Pros: Multiplayer or solo fun, great for the entire family.
Cons: 4 player mode is a little tricky.
The bottom line: MARIO KART RACING is good for young and old alike! My 7 yr. old daughter loves it as much as I do.
I just love this game! In fact my entire family does. So much so that practically every evening while dinner is cooking my boyfriend says "Put in racing". Now please know that we have several gaming systems, Nintendo 64, Playstation, Super Nintendo, and Sega not to mention tons of computer games. As soon as those words leave his mouth we all know exactly what he means...MARIO KART RACING for NINTENDO 64! The really strange part is we have assorted racing games for all systems, but "racing" means MARIO!

****GETTING STARTED****
After hitting the start button you are taken to the main menu where you choose what mode you will play. There are several.

1 player mode...
...Mario GP (Grand Prix) Race against all characters for a trophy.
...T.Trials (Time Trials) Race against the clock to get the best time.

2 player mode...
...Mario GP
...VS (Versus) Race each other
...Battle. Here you have 3 balloons attached to the rear of your kart and maneuver through multi-level or flat tracks using the weapons to destroy other player's balloons.

3-4 player mode...
...VS
...Battle

After selecting your mode you must choose the difficulty level. Here the levels are ranked by speed. 50cc being the easiest and 150cc being the hardest.

Then comes the character selection.
There are 8 to choose from. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, D.K. (Donkey Kong), Wario (Mario's bad seed cousin), or Bowser. I like Toad the best as he's the funniest.

Each Character has little personality too. During the race if Toad gets hit he screams, if he hits another player with a weapon, he laughs, if he gets a Nitro-Mushroom he yells "Yahoo" and if he wins he exclaims "I'm the best". Peach is funny too. When she hits a player with a weapon she proudly announces "Bingo". Which ever character you choose I'm sure you'll find it amusing.

Now choose a Course. There are four different courses with four tracks on each course. Again there are levels. In GP mode you race for a trophy. You are awarded points for placing 1st (9pts.), 2nd (6 pts.), 3rd (3 pts.) and 4th (1 pt.) Points are totaled at the end of the 4th track. The easiest level here is Mushroom Cup, followed by Flower, Star and Special.

****3-2-1 RACE****
During the race you will see jewel type things located at different points. Drive through these jewels to aquire your weapons.

1. Banana(s)... Place these on the track to make you opponents spin out of control.
2. Green shell(s)...Use these to shoot forward or backward to hit your opponents. If you don't hit anyone, they will bounce back and forth across the track until they do. Careful... it might be you that catches it!
3. Red Shell(s)...Use these like guided missiles. They hone in the opponent in front of you and blast them to smitherines!
4. Red Mushroom(s)...Use these for a burst of speed.
5. Golden Mushroom...Use this like the red ones but it last longer.
6. Star....Use this to become invincible, and gain speed.
7. Ghost...Use this to steal a weapon from a random opponent, and become invisible.
8. Lighting...Use this to shrink all opponents except those using the STAR or GHOST. Great way to catch up if your behind!
9. Blue Shell...This bad boy hones in on the 1st place player and hits all opponents in the middle of track on it's way to the marked player.

****BONUS****
If you win all 4 tracks in the SPECIAL CUP race (150cc) you are awarded an EXTRA track option. On this option all the tracks are mirrored. They look backward. That's really fun and challenging.

****GRAPHICS AND SOUNDS****
Keeping up the other MARIO games, MARIO KART RACING has great graphics and sounds. Vivid colors, details, and 3-D images make this definate eye candy! The sounds are very clear. You can understand what the characters are saying.